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<p><SPAN class="panel-title"> Aspiring Writers Toolkit -- BayCon 2012 </SPAN> <SPAN class="dateline"> 26.05.2012 16.00h </SPAN></p>
<ul class="taglist">
<li class="tags">
Workshops
</li>
<li class="tags">
Craft
</li>
<li class="tags">
Writers' Groups
</li>
<li class="tags">
Critique
</li>
</ul>

<BR/>
<DIV class="intro">

</DIV>

<DIV class="panelists">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson">Brandon Sanderson</a> - Brandon</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Kaathryn_Bohnhoff">Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff</a> - Maya</li>
<li><a href="http://margaretmcgaffeyfisk.com/writing/index.html">Margaret McGaffey Fisk</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_McCaffrey">Todd McCaffrey</a>
</DIV>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="bibliogrphy">Bibliogrphy</h3>
<DIV class='bibliography'>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Great-Screenplays-AFI-Film/dp/0028615557">Cooper, Donna. Writing Great Screenplays AFI</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Edition/dp/0060545690/">Browne, Renni and Dave King. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009">Snyder, Blake. Save the Cat. The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816/">King, Steven. On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016/">Lamont, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life</a>
</DIV>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="resources">Resources</h3>
<DIV class="bibliography">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/">Writer Beware</a></li>
<li><a href="http://absolutewrite.com/">Absolute Write</a></li>
<li><a href="http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/">Online Writing Workshop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.critique.org/">Critters</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/">Writing Excuses</a>
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</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="notes">Notes</h3>
<div class="notes">

<p>Maya: Writers' Groups/Critique Group. You must watch out, especially for readers who doesn't like the genre. Or from anyone from whom you hear something very different from the other critiques.</p>
<p>If you have good instincts, group can be a mirror for what you already know.</p>
<p>Know yourself, and your instincts. Are you a person better suited to in-person or online critique groups?</p>
<p>Be as specific as possible. Dare to be blunt. Failure to do so results in useless critiques. A critique is an emotional interaction. Fix as much as you possibly can before you get a critique.</p>
<p>All critique is pointing to pain points/broken points/confusing areas.</p>
<p>Getting critique can be hard, until you really realize that the critique is of the work, not the writer.</p>
<p>&quot;You don't need a therapist if you have a typewriter&quot; -- Howard Waldrop</p>
<p>&quot;When you are writing, you are on a voyage of discovery&quot;</p>
<p>A <u>bad</u> writer's group will destory your stories. Steven King warns against them.</p>
<p>Guidelines: 1. Don't critique until you're finished 2. When critiquing, be descriptive (reaction and feedback), not proscriptive (what you 'should' do) 3. Avoid talking, get others' reactions. Say as little as possible. Don't defend yourself, it will discourage honesty. 4. Don't be mean, but don't be nice. Being nice means you're not helping.</p>
<p>If you want to grow as a writer, grow as a critiquer as well as a critiquee.</p>
<p>Writer groups can find low-level problems, especially for novels.</p>
<p>Always get feedback in writing -- including a summary later.</p>
<p>Also say good thinks, like what IS working.</p>
<p>There are a lot of so-called 'rules', but they aren't, they are guidelines.</p>
<p>Keep <em>all</em> versions of <em>all</em> works. (NB: git!!)</p>
<p>Write the feedback down, then come back later.</p>
<p>Know when to stop workshopping a story -- it will either kill the spark or result in a totally new story.</p>
<p>Write. Finish what you start. Start something new.</p>
<p>At what level is/are the problems?</p>
<p>Know your tools: the language. Be in the right frame of mind. Read with the assumption you'll love the story. Give line comments and synopsis.</p>
<p>Practice synopsis skills as part of the critique. That will show your reading of the story.</p>
<h3 id="tools.-formalfor-pay"><b>Tools. Formal/for pay</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://literature.ucsd.edu/affiliated-programs/clarion/index.html">Clarion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.clarionwest.org/">Clarion West</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sff.net/odyssey/">Odyssey</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sff.net/paradise/">Viable Paradise</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.writersofthefuture.com/">Writers of the Future</a> eligible, until you're eligible for SFWA, then you aren't.</li>
</ul>
<p>Writers of the Future also gives you a deadline, every quarter. It is kept very separate from Scientology.</p>
<p>You must tell yourself, &quot;I can write better than (someone else published)&quot;</p>
<p>If you don't have a deadline, make one up. Deadlines make you focus.</p>
<p>Beware of &quot;how-to&quot; books.</p>
<p>If any book lays out dogma, drop it. It's not helpful. Drop it if it doesn't work.</p>
<p>Spiders spinning a web. &quot;You are not in competition&quot;</p>
<p>Writers of the Future, submit stories up to 17.5k words. Honorable mention does mean something. Silver honorable mention means even more.</p>
<p>Book doctoring -- good, bad, and otherwise. Not everyone wants to (can) do their own editing. It can be very terrible -- look at what else that editor has done, ask other writers s/he has worked for.</p>
<p>Why hire an editor? To learn what to do. Also for freelance (self) publishing, where you don't get any from the publisher.</p>
<p>Don't overedit. And make everything work at a base language level (grammar etc.) before hiring a book doctor. The editor shouldn't fix things, the writer must.</p>
<p>For pros who have been in the industry, look when they were active (things change).</p>
<p>Be wary of contests that want money for genre content (other than perhaps a nominal fee), and what is offered for that.</p>
<p>Not everything will click with you, in any material; listen to yourself, if it doesn't work, move on.</p>
<p>But:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do pay for workshops and master classes</li>
<li>SF Con workshops are pretty good</li>
</ul>
<p>Read other fiction, and when it is powerful, or terrible, and figure out why.</p>
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